Evolution

Evolution is a comedy about an invasion of aliens from outer space. It stars David Duchovny as Ira Kane, a science teacher, and Orlando Jones as his friend Harry Block, a scientist. One night, a student, played by Seann William Scott who is practising for his fire-fighting exam, narrowly escapes death when a meteor hits in a remote part of Arizona. Ira and Harry are called to investigate, and they discover that the meteorite is covered in a kind of slime. Further investigation indicates that the slime contains single celled organisms which are rapidly evolving into more complex creatures. It doesn't take long before the army moves in and takes over the site. Ira and Harry are obviously upset about this because they made the discovery, and they sneak into the site to continue their investigation. Of course they get caught, but this doesn't stop them, and they soon realise that the aliens are multiplying so quickly that pretty soon they will take over the whole of the USA. The military decides to wipe out the threat using napalm, but Ira and his team discover that this is only going to make matters a lot worse. Will they be able to devise a proper solution and execute it before the military inadvertently causes the end of civilisation as we know it?

Evolution is quite funny, although perhaps it tries a little too hard to be funny. The Harry Block character is a bit annoying at times as Jones overacts somewhat, but overall I found it quite amusing. The alien effects are great; we've seen the dinosaurs before, but the little alien insects and creepy-crawlies are fantastic. In one scene, a very sad-looking dog-like alien suddenly ejects what looks like a demented chicken head and this sequence reminded me of a similar effect in John Carpenter's The Thing.

Evolution is clearly making fun of other 'creature' films. As well as The Thing, there are elements of Men In Black, Jurassic Park, The Blob, and the presence of Duchovny is a bizarre reminder of The X-Files. The film also contains product placement for a popular hair-care product, and I was left wondering if it really was product placement, or if it was simply making fun of product placement.